Brewers Transform Catholic School And Convent

WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP — It is opening night at the new home for a brewery in Luzerne County.

Breaker Brewing Company started with two friends in a garage making some home brew. Now they’ve transformed an old Catholic school and convent into a brewery that opened a few minutes ago for tastings and beer sales.

The beer is now flowing from the taps at the new home of Breaker Brewing Company.

What was the old St. Joseph’s Convent and Catholic School in Wilkes-Barre Township is now a working brewery, celebrating its grand opening, with balloons, and of course, beer.

“It’s exciting. It’s almost surreal. It’s a long time coming. We’ve been working away for a long time,” said Chris Miller.

Despite having separate full-time jobs, Chris Miller and Mark Lehman put hours and hours of work into refurbishing the building that had been vacant for a decade.

The tasting room still has the feel of an old classroom.

The bar is old pews from the closed church next door.

Breaker Brewing Beer celebrates the mining history of the area and so does their new home.

“We have a video of us when we first came in here and were in this room and looked around and said ‘this could be a great brewery,’ because the building itself has so much character,” said Lehman.

All this took a lot of family support, including parents helping with the finishing touches.

“Thank God for our wives. We really have to thank those guys and friends and family, but you know, every night and weekend working at it, it’s definitely come a long way.”

It all started with the two friends brewing in a garage in 2005.

“We kind of thought of it from the beginning and then one day we said ‘let’s do it. What are we going to call ourselves? Breaker Brewing Company, alright, let’s go!'”

“Every now and again you stop and say, ‘wow, we’ve gotten this far,’ it’s just amazing.”

Breaker Brewing beers have been available in bars for a while, but now you’ll be able to come right here to the source, and not only sample the beers, but talk to the guys about them too.

“We deliver to bars and things like that, but now you can come and see our home and where we are and what we do.

For now, customers can taste the beer and get growlers filled but Chris and Mark envision a brew-pub there.

“Our ideas just mold as the days go by and we’ll just see where the future takes us.”

For now, the Breaker Brewing Company tasting room will be open Tuesday and Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons from noon to 5 p.m.

It’s located just off the top of Northampton Street in Wilkes-Barre township.